"I have always known Jim Jordan to be a man of honesty," Paul Ryan said Wednesday.

Ryan also said the school should review his conduct, but not the Ethics Committee, which doesn't investigate "things that happened a couple of decades ago when they weren't in Congress." pic.twitter.com/2BvtCmPid0

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) publicly weighed in today on the allegations from former Ohio State wrestlers that Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), a former OSU coach, was aware of sexual abuse but turned a blind eye to it.

His spokesperson said in a statement just last week, “These are serious allegations and issues. The university has rightfully initiated a full investigation into the matter. The speaker will await the findings of that inquiry.”

Today, Ryan was asked directly about it and he first said he spoke with Jordan over the weekend:

“Jim Jordan is a friend of mine. We haven’t always agreed with each other over the years. But I have always known Jim Jordan to be a man of honesty and a man of integrity. I also want to make sure that Ohio State conducts the review of this doctor and what he did. That’s important so that campuses are safe, and I’m glad campuses are supporting that review.”

On the question of whether he would support a House Ethics investigation, Ryan said, “The Ethics committee here investigates things that members do while they’re here, not things that happened a couple of decades ago when they weren’t in Congress.”

Jordan has repeatedly denied knowledge of abuse and today he criticized CNN for doing reporting work:

Now @CNN is contacting all 100+ of our former staff and interns asking for dirt on me. Getting desperate! How can you ever trust such #fakenews?